Minerva scooter factory diversifies and consolidates production lines

Havana, March 4.- The diversification of services and the consolidation of the main production lines characterize the current situation of the Ángel Villarreal Bravo Industrial Company, better known as the Minerva scooter factory.

This is how its director Eliel Pérez Pérez, a trained mechanical engineer, highlighted exclusively for the Cuban News Agency, who explained that the factory was initially designed to produce mechanical bicycles (with a high level of specialization in processes such as frame welding and manufacturing) but later they began to venture into the section of electric cycles, motorbikes and tricycles.

He explained that this opening in the product quarry led the entity to rescue the production of wheelchairs, to the point that they are currently the only ones dedicated to the assembly of these means in the country, and together with the concept of taking advantage of all the available machinery. It also moved on to creating shelving for warehouses, both small and larger formats.

Pérez Pérez specified that these benefits have been well received by customers and the population who demand the products, especially wheelchairs, where there is a commitment to manufacture around 1,300 chairs between March and April to deliver them to the Ministry of Public Health in order to give a certain level of response to the demand of hospitals.

He stressed that, in commercial terms, the strong line falls on motorbikes and tricycles, which will benefit from a medium-scale investment project that will impact the assembly and finishing process and, by extension, the final quality of the product.

In addition, he added, starting from an agreement with a foreign supplier, which can expand the chain towards electric quadricycles, which constitutes an opportunity to expand into that field that may be attractive for the Cuban market.

The main challenges, he clarified, are concentrated in the order of financing where alternatives have been applied to guarantee a flow of investment and raw materials, a fact that allowed that, although the plan for physical units was not fulfilled last year, it was achieved. They could achieve good results and economic indicators and that workers would receive payments from profits.

Another issue that has had an impact has been fuel, but with the support of the authorities of the province of Villa Clara, always attentive to prioritizing the company in the midst of the current circumstance, it has been possible to sustain the distribution of goods and the vitality of the center, he added.

The Ángel Villarreal Bravo Minerva Industrial Company was created in 1995 with the purpose of producing and marketing bicycles both for internal consumption and for the search for opportunities in foreign markets, taking advantage of its machinery for the production of metal structures.

With the premise of producing and offering the country ecological equipment, it is committed to a sustainable future by marketing equipment that has electrical energy as a power source; maintains and increases its businesses aimed at tourism investments, the Mariel Special Development Zone, import substitution and the use of electronic commerce. (ACN) (Photo: Cubadebate/ Archive)